a taper of pale tallow that will take flame only from the last remainder of another candle.

The object resembles a common hand-dipped taper, with a collar of old wax fused about its lower third. The wick is intact and uncharred when first stored. It cannot be lit by match, spill, or lamp. It takes flame immediately when its wick is touched to a burning stub taken from any candle that has previously burned within the same building. The borrowed flame persists only until the donor stub is fully extinguished; at that moment the taper is found unlit, with no smoke, and its wick presents as newly cut. Repetition shortens the donor stub at a rate exceeding combustion. The taper does not appreciably diminish under use. When placed among unused candles in a drawer, several are found as stubs within one week, with no soot on the drawer interior. Attempts to isolate the taper in a glass jar result in the jar being found open, without disturbance of the seal wax.